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Jimmy Darmody
James Edison "Jimmy" Darmody (January 1898-August 1921) was an American bootlegger and the former right-hand man of Enoch Thompson, the Atlantic County Treasurer and powerful bootlegger. Darmody was a loose cannon, and he was killed by Thompson for betraying him. Biography Military service ]]James Edison Darmody was born in January 1898 in Atlantic City, New Jersey, the illegitimate son of Atlantic County Treasurer Louis Kaestner and Irish prostitute Gillian Darmody, who was just thirteen years old when she gave birth to James. Darmody was raised by his young mother, who was later helped by Atlantic County Treasurer Enoch Thompson, Kaestner's right-hand man. Darmody saw Thompson as a father figure, and Thompson hoped that Darmody would become a high-ranking politician and his successor. Darmody was sent to attend Princeton University, where he met Angela Ianotti, whom he married and had a son, Tommy, with. In 1917, his mother visited Princeton, and a teacher made advances towards her. Darmody retaliated by beating up the teacher, and a drunken Darmody and his mother slept together; he was 19 and she was 32, close ages. Darmody was ashamed of what he had done, and he decided to join the US Army and serve his country during World War I. Darmody was awarded a medal for his service at the Battle of Saint-Mihiel, and he was wounded in the right leg by German shrapnel. Prohibition On 16 January 1920, he returned to New Jersey, and he became a driver and bodyguard for Thompson, who was slightly upset by Darmody's decision to abandon his family to fight in the war. Darmody was upset when he was made an assistant clerk to Paddy Ryan, as he had hoped to become the Chief Clerk instead of Ryan. He decided to make moves on his own, and he met Al Capone during a meeting between Thompson, James Colosimo, Johnny Torrio, Lucky Luciano, and Arnold Rothstein; the two talked about their service in the war, with Capone falsely claiming that he served in the "Lost Battalion". The two became friends, and they decided to steal a shipment of Rothstein's liquor after it arrived at the docks on 18 January 1920. Darmody was forced to flee to Chicago to prevent Rothstein and Luciano from retaliating, and he lived in a whorehouse, the "Four Deuces". He worked with Capone under Torrio, and he took part in the gang war against Greektown Irish Mob boss Charlie Sheridan. Darmody made a name for himself, befriending fellow war veteran Richard Harrow at a Chicago army hospital, and he was later called back to Atlantic City by Nucky Thompson when Thompson went to war with the D'Alessio brothers, Rothstein, and Luciano. Darmody briefly returned to serving as Thompson's chauffeur, but he did not feel the same amount of devotion towards him as he once had. Darmody succeeded in reconnecting with his illegitimate father, Commodore Kaestner, after returning to Atlantic City with Harrow and the two of them decided to take control of Atlantic City from Thompson due to Thompson's perceived greed. They nearly took over the city with the help of Mickey Doyle, Luciano, Meyer Lansky, the aldermen, wealthy and elderly investors such as Leander Cephas Whitlock and Jackson Parkhurst, the Ku Klux Klan, and ever Eli Thompson, and they were successful in many ways. The federal government indicted Thompson for election fraud, the Ku Klux Klan nearly drove Chalky White out of business, and Thompson was eventually forced to resign as treasurer, allowing for Jim Neary to become the interim treasurer. However, Darmody's large shipment of booze was destroyed by Thompson's henchman Owen Sleater in a warehouse bombing before Darmody's new business partner Manny Horvitz could receive it, and Horvitz grew angry when Darmody was unable to deliver the $5,000 shipment of liquor to Horvitz's base in Philadelphia. Darmody grew tired of Horvitz pestering him about the money and attempted to have Waxey Gordon kill Horvitz, but Horvitz killed the hitman Alfred Gordetsky and discovered Darmody's role in the assassination attempt from a box of toothpicks from an Atlantic City restaurant in Gordetsky's coat. Horvitz came to Atlantic City and killed Angela Darmody and her lesbian lover at Darmody's house, as Darmody was in Princeton, where he wanted to sell heroin given to him by Lansky and Luciano. Jimmy Darmody grew angry when Gillian Darmody told Jimmy that his son Tommy would forget all about Angela, and he choked his mother in a heroin-fueled rage. Kaestner attacked Jimmy with a spear when he saw this, and Jimmy stabbed his father in the abdomen twice, killing him. At this point, the investors had abandoned Darmody due to his murder of Parkhurst over an insult; Alderman George O'Neill had been murdered by Eli Thompson; the city's economy was crippled by the 1921 Atlantic City general strike; and Darmody was losing business to Thompson, whose imported Irish whiskey was sold at half the regular price, giving him more business than Darmody. Darmody's coup had failed, and the plotters were defeated. Downfall Darmody decided to attempt to reconcile with Thompson, meeting with him a few times, and he attempted to explain the reasons behind the coup and the solutions that he could think of. He had Alderman Jim Neary murdered in order to derail the federal government's election fraud indictment against Nucky, and the indictment was decided to be a mistrial. Thompson decided that Darmody could not be forgiven, and he decided to lure him into a trap. He called Darmody and told him that he had captured Manny Horvitz, and that Horvitz was being held at the Atlantic City War Memorial. Darmody drove there alone, planning to kill Horvitz himself. However, he found Horvitz, Nucky Thompson, Owen Sleater, and Eli Thompson waiting for him, and Eli pointed a shotgun at Jimmy. Jimmy knew that the coup would lead to his death, and he asked who would kill him - Nucky said that he would. Jimmy taunted Nucky by telling him of how he vomited for two days after he killed his first man, and he told him how to kill someone. Nucky spoke at the same time, telling Darmody that he brought his death upon himself. Nucky interrupted Darmody's rants by shooting him in the face with a pistol, making him fall to the ground. Nucky told a dying Darmody that he was not seeking forgiveness, and he shot Darmody again in the face, killing him. Category:1898 births Category:1921 deaths Category:Irish-Americans Category:German-Americans Category:Americans Category:Criminals Category:Catholics Category:Killed Category:Thompson organization Category:Chicago Outfit Category:Republican Party members Category:New Jersey Republicans Category:American conservatives Category:Conservatives Category:People from Atlantic City Category:People from New Jersey